"Countdown" Beats "O'Reilly Factor" In Ratings Demo For First Time Ever

MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" beat Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" in the key Adults 25-54 demographic for the first time ever last week.

"Countdown" averaged 477,000 viewers (A25-54) vs. O'Reilly's 472,000 (excluding Tuesday's primary coverage). This marks the first time that MSNBC has beaten Fox News in O'Reilly's 8pm time slot since June 2001.

Comments

[TroubleNYC]

Getting 5K more viewers isn't exactly a "smackdown".

[SuiginTou7]

It is if you have an ego like O'Riely.

[meanguy]

and if you have an ego like olberman

[SuiginTou7]

Did we scare off O'Riely defenders?

[kannadzuki]

O'Reilly defenders reading Huffpost? Is that a joke?

As if they'd read an opposing view.... or *read*, for that matter. ;)

[SlinkyTWF]

They are also known as Fox Security. Comin' to get ya!

[gr8abz]

Olbermann has balls. He tells it like it is. If the truth hurts and you can't handle it then too bad.
O' Reilly is passe. He's a loud, bullying blowfart who lies and smears and distorts. His party is in trouble. More and more people see the Republicans for who they really are. Shining example. Today the Republicans voted to block the Democrats attempt to pass a windfall profits tax on the disgustingly greedy oil companies. And the GOP blocked it claiming it would lead to higher taxes--their favorite excuse for every sick thing they do. Aside that a windfall profit tax on companies like Exxon would mostly likely lead to lowering taxes since it would provide much needed additional revenue to our government. Shame on them. At a time when we are being gouged at the pump this is how the Republicans show their patriotism. You're damn right we need Obama and a Democratic congress. Go get'em Keith.

[stanjz]

You could have challenged Olbermann right here, but instead you resort to name calling like your hero O'Reilly "Plus Olbermann is a HUGE dork. He seems like that guy who lives with his mom and played "Dungeons and Dragons" as a kid" I'm pretty sure he doesn't live with his mom, and who cares if he played Dungeons and Dragons. Who do you think you were as a kid, the Fonz? He endorsed Obama!

[sl26]

I really don't understand the ratings business so.....Here are my questions:

Doesn't FOX News have more stations carrying their channel than MSNBC? I mean wouldn't you naturally have more viewers if you had more stations carrying your channel? If that's true then KO beating Bill O is even more satisfying.

[Redrover666]

There must be some damned way to do the math and justify this in your mind. Surely, there must be??!!!

[realpolitic]

Do you really believe half the lies you hear on Fox? Was the fist-bump Obama affectionately did with his wife really a "terrorist" fist bump? Is Obama really a radical Muslim or radical Christian? You can defend Fox all day, but they despise their audience because they continually lie to you. When you lie directly to viewers you have to despise them.

[hwebb54]

The difference in Olbermann's show and O'Reilly''s is simple. Olbermann never brings on anyone that will challenge anything he says and O'Reilly loves bringing people on that differ from him so he can argue with them. You can only hear "yeah Keith, I think you're right." so many times before you have to turn it over to O'Reilly. I might not agree with O'Reilly on a lot of things but at least I know he might bring on someone who I do agree with. Plus Olbermann is a HUGE dork. He seems like that guy who lives with his mom and played "Dungeons and Dragons" as a kid. Someone should give David Gregory his time slot. Race for the White House could be MSNBC's best show if they didn't stack the panels some nights with all far left journalist and columnist. Theres only so much Rachael Maddow, Eugene Robinson, John Harwood and Richard Wolfe you can take when they are together. When Scarborough is on, or Pat Buchanan or both, with two left leaner's, it makes for better television. When everyone is singing the same song and agreeing all the time, it's boring.

[mathme]

You can also count on O'Reilly to edit the crap out of the interview as well.

[SuiginTou7]

Wow, a wee bit bitter? The difference is Olbermann deals with the truth and isn't out there using underlings to ambush people( Nice one Bill Moyers in dealing with O'Riely's little stooge). Billo knows Olbermann is a rising star and it's good to see that the giant head can't deal with kieth using his own words agaisnt him. Olbermann is beating O'Riely. "Dork?" Are we speaking from expierence? Are we still living with Mom and Dad? Are we a 20th level wizard? I think someone's getting cranky and needs some sleep...

[TheHandyman]

The difference between O'lilly and Olberman is that O'lielly brings on people with opposing views so he can threaten, bully, shout down, and keep them from saying anything he doesn't agree with. O'Lielly takes a smidgeon of truth and smothers it with lies. Billo sends out other people to ambush his opponents and has them ask stupid questions that people refuse to answer such as the recent ambush of Bill Moyer. And his program attracts poorly engaged and educated boobs who find rational and educated discourse boring.

On the other hand, Keith is a Journalist who asks intelligent question, has very well informed people on as guests who show their intelligence and their engagment with the subject matter. He doesn't spew hate and lies and he appeals to people who are seeking answers to important questions, who want to be well-informed and who are thoroughly engaged in the democratic process. Thjey come seeking knowledge, not entertainment!

[meanguy]

olberman is not, and has never been...a journalist.

[shellac]

Just to respond to that "dork" bit... I think you are really confused or just bitter. I mean, the guy looks like a freakin' jock. In fact, he used to be a sportscaster on ESPN.

Did you play Dungeons & Dragons with your high school football team or something when you were younger?

[meanguy]

espn would like to forget the days when they had to endure olberman...they couldn't get rid of him fast enough.

[Seven7s]

You are right, Keith should bring people on to argue with him more.

But Bill-O only brings people on to shout them down and turn their mics off. That's hardly an arguement

[marthlois]

Congratulations Keith. Love you show/love you!
DISLIKE BILL O more than words can even say - why
do people continue to watch that TV supermarket tabloid?
Keep up the great work!

[ALC]

Even though Olbermann is the more truthful and entertaining windbag by far of the two, essentially who really gives a shit? Less than half-a-million viewers from the largest group, agewise, in a country of 300 million. Obvious the other 99 plus% of America is intelligent enough to not waste their time watching their bullshit or that of Limbaugh; Coulter and their ilk. That stupid 1% of this country that does value what these types have to say are very lucrative to them though. They tune in every week, buy their books full of outright lies and half-truths and let them influence their opinions and who they vote for. Morons

[VivaZapata]

the petulant one will really blow a fuse or two over this one.

[gtalkspolitics]

Last night was the last straw Bill O'reilly stated ALL of the Katrina Victims were acholics and Crackheads, DUMB DE DUM DUM ,,,,, Bill Oreilly is just plain Dumb I've tried with a open mine to watch FOX NEWS, t
All of the NEws female Anchors are pretty, and Dum as shallow as a kiddie pool,
Sean Hannity and Bill O'reilly are so limited in knowledge it just amazes me that people actually watch there show for 1 hr, and worse yet listen to them on the radio, Bill Orielly is STUPID.....un-connected.

[omahkohkiaayo]

In economics there are direct costs, and then there are opportunity costs, which involve the costs of lost or foregone opportunities: the "value" of something given up by not pursuing the next best alternative to what you are doing and thus a comparsion to the "value" yielded by what you are doing.

So it's still sad that there are over 470,000 morons and/or masochists watching Bully Bill. What could they be doing, and thus what are they giving up, watching his crap? Time with the children? Voting? Watching something edcuational and uplifting instead of moronic sadism? No, perhaps the kind that would watch O'Reilley, it is better they are doing that instead of screwing up their kids trying to turn them into clones of themselves, or voting for someone like themselves, or perhaps learning a few buzz words to make themselves sound just a bit more plausible to the uninitiated.

[Cutie02]

woo countdown!

[neesy08]

i agree. the facts are wrong. foxnews placed dead last last week with the final primaries

[whizkid]

This is untrue.
Countdown has beat O'Reilly many surveys 25-54.

[strifeknot]

Operation Chaos is over, time to go home to Papa Oxycontin, lil' dittohead.

[Ashera]

The Path has gain!